Lab Rats and Lost Souls
by Philomena Rose
Summary: When Angela flees Pelant, the heat is on in the race to catch the killer. Written and set shortly after the events of Season 8, and probably has nothing to do with Season 9. Plays around with the ships Hodgela, Swaisy, and Hodgins/Daisy.
1. A Rude Awakening

**A/N:** **This is my first _Bones_ fanfic, and I'm kind of new to this fandom, so I'm sorry if anything gets too OOC. Anyway, as you may have guessed, I own nothing except for Zoe and the guy mentioned at the beginning of chapter two. Sorry about this first chapter being a little short, but don't worry, there will be about nine or ten more chapters, most of which will probably be longer than this. Reviews are appreciated and if you have any constructive criticism, please share. Enjoy!**

It was the middle of the night when Hodgins woke up to find himself alone in his bed. At first he didn't think too much of it; after all, there was no reason to initially think anything was wrong. However, when Angela didn't return after several minutes, he began to worry. He frantically searched through the house only to find his worst fear: Michael Vincent's crib was empty. There was a small note scrawled on a scrap of torn notebook paper left on the kitchen table.

_Hodgins –_

_I'm sorry it had to be like this. It's just too dangerous for us here right now. I wish I could tell you where we're going, but I can't take that risk. Hopefully, we'll be back with you again soon. We'll miss you._

_Love,_

_Angela_

_How could this have happened?_ he thought to himself. Still, when he considered it, he was almost surprised that he didn't see this coming. Pelant made her feel threatened; he triggered her "fight or flight" mechanism, and Ange was a lover, not a fighter. After he broke into their home, it was really only a matter of time until it would all come down to this.


	2. Back at Work

**A/N: Thanks everyone for the views. (Seriously, I looked at the traffic graph this morning and was like, "Oh my gosh, I have people in the UK and Germany and Japan reading my stuff!") I have most of this story already written out and I'll try to get it posted as soon as possible, so there probably won't be too much of a wait time between chapters, but don't get too spoiled by this two days in a row updating. Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

Hodgins had begrudgingly followed Cam's advice to stay home for a few days. When he returned to work, the impact of Angela's absence had begun to show in the current case. While the Jeffersonian had found a substitute sketcher, he came short of her skills in depth perception, making identifying victims several times more difficult.

"We checked the note. It matches her handwriting exactly," Cam told Hodgins shortly after he came in. "There didn't seem to be any sign of it being written in a rush, though. She probably wrote it willingly."

It was comforting to know that they most likely weren't kidnapped, but it was still painful to think of her running away like that. He ran his ID card through the platform's scanner before walking up the steps. Dr. Brennan and Daisy Wick were analyzing a set of remains together.

"I think I know what happened to the body," Hodgins announced.

The two ladies both responded positively.

"But I need help to perform an experiment to test this theory." He motioned to Daisy – not his first choice in lab assistants, but she was the only intern there that day.

"Miss Wick, can you go help out Dr. Hodgins?" Dr. Brennan requested.

She nodded and quickly crossed the platform to him.

* * *

Daisy knew the entomologist didn't like it when she tried to carry out conversations during an experiment, but she just couldn't help it sometimes. "Dr. Hodgins, are you alright?" she asked meekly as they were working in the lab.

_Great. Just what I need: Little Miss Chatterbox prying into the details my personal life._ "My wife just left me in the middle of the night and took our son with her!" he snapped. "Do you think I'm alright?"

"Sorry," she apologized, handing him the beaker.

As he took it, he hardheartedly apologized back to her. Don't shoot the messenger, after all, even if she does have a "mouth with a mouth of its own."

Though he mixed all the right chemicals, the cantaloupe remained almost completely unaffected.

"Maybe we should add some more of this," she motioned to a small glass flask containing an acidic liquid.

His mind quickly processed what she was saying. "That could also explain why the body decomposed so quickly."

"Can I say 'Queen of the Lab' now?" she beamed.

"Hold your horses, we haven't tried it out yet." Hodgins slowly poured a small amount of the liquid into the other beaker. Unsurprisingly, his assistant's idea worked.

"Now can I say it?" Her green eyes sparkled like those of a begging puppy.

He nodded, deciding to at least humor her this once.

"Queen of the Lab!" she declared with a large grin.

Hodgins thought to himself what Zack would think of Daisy joining in on the competition.

"Hey, look at that. You're smiling," she noted.

Hodgins didn't even realize the small smirk on his face until she pointed it out. It was the first time he'd smiled since the other night.

"Look, I know we may have gotten off on the wrong foot when we first met, but you're going through a rough experience, and I'd be happy to help you," she said earnestly.

"Thanks," he half-mumbled.

"You just need to take your mind off things for a little while," she suggested. She waited for a response before finally offering, "How about tonight, after work, we go to Founding Fathers? I'll pay."

Though he wasn't particularly excited by this idea of being stuck with her, he accepted anyway.


	3. Chapter 3

The couple sat side by side on the couch in Dr. Sweets' office. "That's perfectly normal," the young psychologist said, then caught himself. "Actually," he corrected, "at her age, it could be a sign of heightened understanding of spatial awareness."

"See, Bones? Nothing to worry about," Booth assured.

Dr. Brennan was about to respond when the door swung open. A small redhead holding a paper bag with the Royal Diner logo on it strolled in, then noticed the two other people. "Am I interrupting anything?" she asked, blushing as she set the bag on Sweets' desk.

"Oh! Um, kind of," Sweets answered honestly. He turned to the couple. "Sorry about that. This is my..." he searched for the word.

"Girlfriend?" Booth suggested.

Sweets let out a small snicker while shaking his head, but the girl looked almost aghast. "More like protege," she corrected, trying to regain her composure.

"She's new here, so I'm just showing her the ropes," Sweets explained coolly.

Booth examined the young lady and wondered to himself if the FBI had some unspoken rule about only hiring psychologists that looked like they were barely qualified to work for a school newspaper advice column, let alone a federal agency.

She extended her hand out to them. "I'm Dr. Zoe Simon." Booth nearly scoffed. Zoe. Even her _name_ sounded too young. "You must be Agent Booth and Dr. Brennan," she said. "Dr. Sweets has told me a lot about you two."

"Nothing that violates doctor-patient confidentiality," Sweets was quick to add.

"Right," Booth said, seeing this as an optimal opportunity to leave and getting up from the couch. "We'll just leave you two to stare at some inkblots or whatever shrink-y stuff you do together." He nodded as he followed Dr. Brennan out the door.

Sweets shrugged at his younger colleague as they left. "Maybe you three will learn to love each other?" he suggested.

"You'd better watch out, they're gaining on us," Booth joked as he and his partner walked down the hallway, arm-in-arm. "Next thing you know, there will be more shrinks on the team than squints. They might even try to take over the Jeffersonian."

"I find your hypothesis highly unlikely," Dr. Brennan replied sincerely.


	4. The Morning After

**A/N: Thank you for the follows. It really means a lot to me as a writer that you like my story and would like to continue reading it.**

* * *

Neither of the two were quite certain how that night's events escalated to this, but, being a pair of lonely lost souls, neither really had any complaints. Daisy woke up that morning curled up in Hodgins's strong arms, her face resting against his chest and sighed softly. She had remembered reading about that move he did last night in Dr. Brennan's book from a few years ago. Page 187. She and Lance had tried it and found it every bit as amazing as described in the novel, yet, somehow, last night it was even more perfect than she would have guessed humanly possible, even with her wild imagination. It was almost as if Hodgins actually was Andy. She pondered this thought for a moment, then softly shook her head in denial. Dr. Brennan and Hodgins? She had only known the team for a few years, but she still couldn't picture it ever happening.

Hodgins looked down at Daisy, who was still mostly asleep as she cuddled up next to him. _She's actually pretty cute when she's not yapping her head off_, he thought to himself, then caught what he just said. _How hung over am I?_ He looked over to the small clock on the bedside table. It was about a quarter past six. He gently nudged her shoulder. "Daisy, wake up," he said, hardly awake himself.

She yawned slightly as she got to her feet. She pulled together an outfit from her closet and quickly got dressed. As she finished buttoning up her blouse, she strolled over to the kitchen of her flat to fix some breakfast for the two of them.

She had just finished cooking the scrambled eggs as Hodgins walked in. "Good morning," she cheerfully greeted, almost a little too upbeat for having just woken up a couple minutes ago.

"Good morning," he echoed in a much less chipper fashion while pouring himself a glass of orange juice.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I had fun last night," she piped up with a smile as she took a seat at the opposite side of the small table. She then had a slightly more serious, concerned look in her eyes as she then asked, "Are you feeling better?"

"Daisy, we can't keep doing this," he told her bluntly.

"I know." She almost asked, "Why?" instead, but she already knew the answer too well. She knew that this couldn't last very long. Whenever Angela returned, he would go running back to her, and she'd be alone yet again. Being dumped wasn't exactly something you "get used to," but after a few times, the shock does somewhat begin to wear away. Ever since she began dating, it was almost always the same reasons: things like, _"No offense, Daisy, but your obsession with dead things is just really disgusting,"_ or _"Don't you ever shut the hell up?"_ Having a wife and kid, however, was a completely new reason. She felt horrible for having an affair with a married man, but she conflictingly felt few regrets about which married man it was. She honestly did like her coworkers, especially Angela, but sometimes she thought that Angela just didn't appreciate Hodgins nearly as much as he cared about her. Still, the two of them had a kid together, and who was she to break up a family?


	5. Bring Back Zack

**A/N: I just finished typing up the final chapter last night, so if things go as planned, I should be able to update a chapter a day as I've been doing and have the whole story (11 chapters) uploaded by the end of the week or so! (fingers crossed that nothing comes up) Thanks again for all the support! Now, on with the story!**

* * *

If Cam had known why Dr. Brennan had stopped her in the hallway that morning, she probably would have never allowed her to start this conversation.

"I believe that Zack could be a valuable asset to the team. He's truly a genius and quite possibly exactly what we need to catch Pelant," Dr. Brennan insisted as they walked through the lab.

"The Jeffersonian Institute has a reputation, Dr. Brennan. I'm sorry, but we can't just let him come back to work with us on this case like nothing happened." It hurt Cam to say these words, but rules were rules. Though Zack was generally loved by all his colleagues, he still killed a man, and that wasn't something that could easily be swept under the rug. If anything were to happen, their reputation as a nationally-revered team of forensic scientists could be shattered in mere seconds. She pulled out her ID card and swiped it across the platform's scanner.

"What if we keep him under constant supervision while in the lab?" Dr. Brennan suggested, searching for some kind of loophole.

Cam paused on the steps and sighed, unsure of whether it was out of relief that there may be a way to help their former coworker or nervousness that the rules might catch up to them before the case was solved. Either way, Pelant had been after the team for over a year now, and after almost a month without Angela, it couldn't hurt to try this. "If you can find someone..."

* * *

Dr. Sweets knocked on the door of Dr. Simon's office. She quickly got up to answer it. "Hello, Sweets," she cheerfully greeted, inviting him inside.

"Hey," he responded as she led him over to the seat across from her desk.

"Coffee?" she offered, motioning to a small pot set up on the corner of her desk next to a small pile of clutter. Her office had just barely enough room for a desk, her chair, and a small settee couch, but she seemed to have made herself at home.

He nodded. "Thanks."

As she poured some coffee into two small paper cups, she casually asked, "So, what brings you here? Is this some kind of surprise test of my skills or something?"

"Actually, in a way, yes. Although it's more of a challenge than a test."

Her eyes widened, and her head was slightly cocked to one side like a confused puppy. "Care to explain?" she inquired.

Sweets took a sip of his coffee and quickly thought about how to explain this situation to her. "A few years ago, the Jeffersonian Institute had a forensic anthropologist named Zack Addy. We think that he may be able to help us catch a serial killer who we've been going after."

"Really? That's great!"

"But there's a catch... and that's where you come in." He opened his briefcase and pulled out a manila folder with a few papers inside.

"Okay, what do I need to do then?"

"A few years ago, he was sent to the McKinley Psychiatric Hospital. However, we came to an agreement that he would be allowed to come help us if he had proper supervision. I'd do it myself, but I figured that since you're new here, you wouldn't have too many assignments right now, and-"

"So, basically I have to just keep an eye on him?"

"Exactly." Sweets handed her the folder. Inside was everything he had learned about Zack.

"Wait," Dr. Simon exclaimed nervously as she read through the papers inside, "you never told me that he killed somebody."

_Almost_ everything. He never wrote about Zack's confession out of fear that somebody else would read his notes. He was not one to spill a secret, even if he didn't want to keep it between just them. "I've been his psychologist for many years now. I can assure you that he does not have the mentality of a killer," he told her, trying to juggle the actions of keeping secrets and comforting his frightened coworker.

"So, do you mean... that was just a one time thing?" she questioned, trying to piece it all together.

_Something like that_, he thought, but merely nodded.

"You really think I can handle this?"

"I have faith in you, Zoe," he softly told her, gently tapping her shoulder reassuringly as he got up to leave.


	6. Reunion

Despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the reunion, it was still exciting to think about getting to work with Zack again. The whole staff of the Jeffersonian Institute's Medico Legal Lab as well as Agent Booth had gathered to welcome him back when Sweets came to drop him off from the McKinley Psychiatric Hospital. Each member of the team happily greeted him one at a time.

Dr. Simon silently observed the scientist. According to the profile Sweets gave her, he was in his early-thirties, but his shaggy sheepdog-like hairstyle made him look much younger. He didn't really look like a killer, but things are not always what they seem. Though he may have looked harmless, he was still much taller than her, so even if he wasn't stronger than he looked, he still would have an advantage over her if things were to get physical between them. Hopefully Sweets was right when he said that was a one-time thing.

The other people in the room slowly left one by one, leaving only Hodgins, Daisy, Zack Sweets, and Zoe behind. "Well, Zack, Zoe," Sweets said, maintaining eye contact with both of them, "you two know just about everything you need to know about each other. I hope that you two will get along, seeing as conflict could compromise our ability to finally solve this case." He might as well have said, "You kids better behave or else!" As if to emphasize his possibly-unintentional moment of parenting, he had the two link arms when he handed his slightly-older patient over to his younger coworker before leaving the group.

"It's like the buddy system, but more awkward," Daisy noted, mostly to herself, seeming to pick up on the theme as wll.

"Hey, Zack, you won't believe this awesome experiment Daisy and I tried out last week," Hodgins told him excitedly. "We have to show you. I think we still have your lab coat in an equipment closet somewhere."

Zack felt touched at that moment. It was completely illogical of the Jeffersonian staff to keep his lab coat. They didn't expect him to come back, and if they did, they could have easily given him an extra one instead. Nonetheless, they still held onto the same blue lab coat he had been issued upon joining Dr. Brennan's team, albeit kept in storage. Although he had three brothers, four sisters, and several other relatives back in Michigan who still cared about him, even after the incident with The Master, right here at the Jeffersonian was where his real family was.

Hodgins turned to Dr. Simon, who was still clutching onto his friend's gloved hand. "We'll have to find you a lab coat as well, Si. Safety first."

"Wait, shouldn't he be working on the Pelant case?" she questioned. "That _is_ what we called him here for."

Daisy and Hodgins glanced at each other, quickly trying to figure out a way to get around this situation. "Well, y'know," Daisy started off slowly, carefully thinking over her word choice, before picking up speed to her regular motormouth pace, "it is his first day back at the Jeffersonian in, like, who knows how many years, so maybe it would be good for us to get him reacquainted with the lab, right? I mean, after all, the sooner he gets settled in, the sooner he can begin to help us with this case if he can."

"And he can be _very_ helpful," Hodgins added, backing up his colleague's argument.

"Yes, from what I heard, he seems like he has a lot of potential to help us solve this case. Think about it. Dr. Brennan was the one who recommended him to help, and if she has faith in his ability, then he must be very good at his job, which also in turn could help me learn and improve as a scientist if you were to let me work with him like this. So, essentially, it's also affecting the future of this institute. Right?"

Dr. Simon was slightly surprised by the young lady's seemingly improvised speech. She wasn't quite sure whether it was Daisy's idea of letting him "become reacquainted" with the lab or her attempts at pathos and ethos towards the end of her monologue or the fact that she seemed to say all of it with no more than two breaths, but something made her agree to this idea. After thinking it over for a second, though, she quickly added, "Wait! Shouldn't we get Dr. Saroyan's permission for this first?"

"We've already done the experiment once; repeating experiments is an important part of science," Hodgins told her in a somewhat professional manner. However, he decided not to tell whether or not he'd use this opportunity to try out a few other experiments after completing the first one.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Here's another chapter. It's a little short, but I think there's enough drama shaking things up to make up for its length. (And either way, Chapter 8 should be up tomorrow if things go as planned.) Thanks for your support, and enjoy!**

* * *

Zack rushed into the room, more or less dragging Dr. Simon behind him.

"I have decoded Pelant's message," Zack announced. "It's not good, though." He had a terrified look in his brown eyes.

"It is Pelant we're talking about. Can we really even assume he's going to send a coded message saying 'Hi. How are you? Have a good day.' or something like that?" Hodgins snarkily commented.

"He's after Daisy," Zack said bluntly.

"What?" Dr. Brennan exclaimed, taken a bit by surprise by his choice in targets. "Why Daisy?"

Dr. Simon piped up, "Because we don't expect him to go after her." Everybody turned towards her. She elaborated, "Naturally, we feel the need to protect leaders like Dr. Brennan and Agent Booth, but we assume that the interns, though crucial to our work, just fly under the radar. Thus, if we don't expect him to try to kill her, it only makes it easier for him to actually do it."

For a moment, everything went quiet. Everybody just stood there and stared at each other as they realized the horrific implications.

Dr. Brennan broke the silence. "We have to warn her."

* * *

Daisy was driving down the street when she heard her phone ringing. She knew better than to answer it while on the road, but then she saw the caller ID: Dr. Brennan. She picked up the phone and was about to answer it when it slipped from her fingers. She took a careful glance at the road in front of her, scanning for any threat, then quickly looked down to retrieve it. Fishing for her phone, she had no way of seeing the other driver at the crossroad running the red light. She quickly clutched the phone then looked back up just as she heard the honk of the horn. With her hands back on the wheel, she tried to swerve, but it was no use.

The collision was sudden. She was thrust forward, pushing the weight of her body against the wheel. Glass shards from the window and windshield rained down around her.

Daisy felt her head spinning as she looked up a few seconds later. When she saw the driver of the other car unconsciously draped over his steering wheel and covered with blood, she felt both her mind and body slowly weakening. It took only a matter of seconds for her light-headedness to escalate into a faint.

* * *

"Daisy?" she barely heard a male voice say.

"Miss Wick?" Was that...Dr. Brennan?

"Daisy, can you hear us?"

"Agent Booth?" she weakly answered back, still barely conscious.

"We need to get her to a hospital," Booth said.

"The ambulance is on its way," Dr. Brennan answered, trying to stay calm.

"Daisy, you're going to be okay," Booth tried to reassure her. "Just stay awake."

"I'll try," she barely whispered, though she could tell that it would be a hard promise to keep. The sunlight was hurting her eyes, so she could only barely hear what was happening around her.

Booth stayed next to Daisy, calmly whispering words of encouragement, while Dr. Brennan walked around, probably investigating the crime scene. Daisy heard her slightly gasp. "Booth, does this man look familiar?" she called out.

Booth walked over to the other car, his footsteps lightly thumping against the concrete road. "Is that...Pelant?"


	8. Aftermath

Sweets rested on the chair in the corner of the hospital room, his eyes intently focused on the young lady in the bed. They broke up several months ago, but that didn't mean he didn't still care. Her left leg and torso were tightly wrapped in blood-covered bandages, her wrists were in braces, and there were several small nasty cuts on her face. It was very jarring to see such a usually cheerful and confident person on the edge of death like this. He couldn't bear the thought of losing her and found himself unable to keep the tears from streaming down his face.

"Lance?" a light, feminine voice weakly half-whispered.

He looked back at her. There was a faint gleam of life in her green eyes as she looked up at him. "Daisy, are you okay?" It was a somewhat stupid question to ask somebody who's in the hospital presumably with several broken bones and is covered with blood, but it was instinctive.

She softly winced as she turned her body a little more towards him. "Well, I'm alive. That's something good, I guess." She decided to try to find the "silver lining" rather than confuse her guest with a slew of medical terms.

Just then, the nurse walked in with a clipboard. "Oh, hello, Miss Wick. I see you're awake," she observed.

"Is she going to be alright?" Sweets blurted out.

"Is this your boyfriend?" the nurse asked Daisy.

Daisy blushed. "No. He's just my coworker."

The nurse laughed slightly to herself. "I wish I had cute coworkers who cared that much about me." _There must be more than just that_, she thought. _He'd stayed there at her side like a little puppy dog all night._

Sweets grinned sheepishly, then caught himself.

"And to answer your question, the broken ribs should heal somewhat easily after some minor surgery, but she's going to need a cast and crutches for her leg. She might have some scars from the glass, and her wrists will probably take at least a few days to heal. Other than that, she should be perfectly fine." She checked her clipboard to make sure she didn't miss anything, and caught a disturbing note. "Oh," she said, her smile fading.

"What?" both the patient and her visitor questioned.

"I'm sorry to inform you that the baby didn't make it."

_Baby?_ "Am I... Was I...?" Daisy couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence.

"Yes," the nurse said softly.

_This has to be a mistake. How had I not noticed this?_ Daisy thought.

"Six weeks along."

_Six weeks. A little under a month and a half. Then it would have to be..._

"I'm sorry you had to find out like this." With that, the nurse left the room.

She was overcome with emotions. Sweets opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it. Right now, he felt it would be better to give her some space for a while. After all, this was a touchy subject, especially when being discussed with one's ex. If she felt like talking about it, she could come see him herself; if not, it would be better not to pry just yet.


	9. Endings and Beginnings

**A/N: Hi, everybody, thanks for reading. I'm sorry if the title of this chapter is a little confusing (I don't think this is the case, but better safe than sorry), but just to be completely clear, this is NOT the last chapter. (I mean, really, there's still some plotlines that haven't been resolved.) There will be two more chapters after this. Enjoy!**

* * *

Most of the staff of the Jeffersonian Institute's Medico Legal Lab were gathered on the platform to wish Zack well before his sendoff. Dr. Brennan and Dr. Saroyan had come to an agreement to let him stay a little bit longer to help with their current non-Pelant case, but once the team done with that – which couldn't be more than just a couple more days – he had to return to McKinley.

"You did a great job, Zack," Dr. Brennan congratulated with a tearful smile of approval.

"Thank you, Dr. Brennan," he replied as she embraced him, gently tousling his curly brown hair in the process.

After she loosened her grip, her intern stepped up and softly tapped her boss's former assistant's shoulder. When he turned around, the two shared a small fist bump. "I know I don't really know you all that well," Daisy began, "but it was truly an honor to get to help you and Dr. Hodgins with all those experiments."

Cam lifted an eyebrow. "I don't remember approving any experiments."

Dr. Simon was flustered as she tried to explain. "I'm so sorry, Dr. Saroyan. I tried to stop them, but I was outnumbered three-to-one."

Cam laughed slightly, but quickly followed with a stern, "Don't let it happen again."

"Does that mean you'll let me come back here again?" Zack asked.

Cam realized what she had just said. "Well, if we ever need you again, and if Dr. Simon is available at the time, it could happen."

Dr. Simon wasn't sure whether to be flattered or terrified at the thought of being in charge of babysitting the scientist again. Either way, if there was going to be a "next time," it would be best to try to make amends with him before then. She offered her hand to Zack. "Well, Dr. Addy, I have to say that I misjudged you. You are truly a brilliant scientist, and generally not that bad a person... even if we did almost get in trouble several times." She quickly looked over at Cam as she finished the last sentence.

Zack smiled slightly and responded, "Thanks, and you weren't as much of a stick in the mud as I expected...most of the time, at least." She softly giggled at his comment, and a few of the other squints joined in.

Their laughter was interrupted by the sound of an ID card being approved by the platform's scanner. Everybody turned to see Angela standing at the base of the steps, holding Michael Vincent. "Is it true?" she asked, then noticed a familiar face among the squints on the platform. "Zack? Is that you, sweetie?"

"Angela?" a few of them questioned simultaneously.

"Yes, it's true," Dr. Brennan said. "And, actually, if it weren't for Zack, this might have turned out quite differently."

"Zack," she said lovingly, pulling him into a side-hug, "I'm so proud of you." The young anthropologist beamed at her praise. Still clinging onto him, she looked back at her coworkers and commented, "I can hardly believe that after all this time, the thing that finally allowed us to catch him was something so mundane."

The others nodded in agreement, but they were too distracted by their colleague's return to question it too much.


	10. Chapter 10

After most of the staff had left for the night, a small meeting was held in secret in limbo. It was dark in the room, both literally and in mood. The two scientists could just barely see each other clearly in the UV lighting that illuminated from the bins of unidentified bones. Their eyes met as he took her hands in his.

"I'm sorry, Daisy."

She knew that this would happen. She had been bracing herself for this breakup ever since the second Angela returned. Nonetheless, she could still feel a tear rushing down her face.

Hodgins gently brushed away the tear with his thumb. "You're a nice girl, Daisy," he explained, "and I enjoyed our few affairs over the past weeks, but Ange and I have a family. I can't leave them like this. Especially not now."

A small part of her wanted to tell him. She knew she wanted to let him know that they, too, were almost a family. Instead, she just nodded and barely squeaked out, "I understand."

She softly hugged him before he left. The second he was out of earshot, though, she balanced herself on her crutches, buried her face in her hands, and began to cry even more.

A few seconds later, Zack entered the room, followed quickly by Dr. Simon.

"Miss Wick, are you alright?" the young psychologist asked, offering her a tissue.

When Daisy barely looked up at her, she had several small red indentations on her face from the seams of her wrist braces' canvas coverings alongside the multiple small cuts from the crash. "I'd rather not talk about it," she sobbed, "at least not now."

She nodded in understanding. "Well, if you decide you want to talk about it, please just come visit either me or Dr. Sweets whenever you're able. Okay?" Though she really wanted to stay to help, she knew that the two of them had to find Dr. Brennan to explain Zack's findings in the case.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Well, here it is, folks: the grand finale. Thanks to everyone who read this, it really means a lot to me to know that you took time out of your day to read my work. I hope you guys liked reading it as much as I liked writing it. Feel free to leave a review if you have any critiques or comments or anything. Thanks again, and enjoy.**

* * *

There was a small knock on the door of Sweets's office. "Come in," he called.

The person on the other side of the door fumbled with the knob a few times. After finally getting the door slightly ajar, it slipped from her hands yet again again. Sweets stood up to get the door. "Sorry about that, Daisy," he apologized as he opened the door. How could he have forgotten? He slowly helped her hobble over to the couch then took a seat across from her at his desk.

Daisy set her crutches against the side of the couch. She leaned in a bit, her braced hands folded in her lap. "Well," she said softly. For what seemed to be the first time in her life, she was speechless. "What are we supposed to do?" _It's not like I have to explain my problem,_ she thought to herself bitterly. _You were _right there_ when it happened_.

"Just... talk to me. Let it all out."

"Like a stream of consciousness type thing?"

"Sure."

"Okay..." She exhaled softly. "It's just... It came out of the blue. I mean, I didn't even find out about the baby until it was too late. And I don't have the strength to tell Hodgins about this."

"Hodgins?" Sweets blurted out in surprise.

"Yes. Hodgins," she said. "And then Angela came back right after the wreck. I really wanted to tell him, but, at the same time, I didn't want to be a home-wrecker for such a nice family." several individual tears began to slowly pour from the corners of her eyes, and her voice slightly began to crack. "I just wish I could know how it would've all turned out, like, if the baby lived. Would it be a boy or a girl? What would we name him or her? Would he even care about us? Would I be stuck alone with the kid? Would I even be a good enough parent to handle raising a kid on my own?" After this rapid-fire series of questions, she began to sob to the point of being unable to form any clearly audible sentences.

"You seem like you'd probably be a good mother," he told her, handing her a tissue from a small box on the corner of his desk. "And if you were to need any assistance, I would try my best to help." He wasn't quite sure if what he told her was sincere or just an impulsive response. He didn't really _want _to have kids, at least not yet. Still, sometimes you have to step outside of your comfort zone to help out a friend in need.

"Really?"

"I still love you, Daisy," he confessed. He knew that the two of them had almost nothing in common, and it was a wonder their relationship even worked for as long as it did. Still, the old saying of "the heart wants what the heart wants" still held true. Loving each other was a disaster waiting to happen, yet he still cared about her after all this time. He stood up and walked around his desk to join her on the couch.

"I love you too, Lancelot." Sweets wrapped his arms around Daisy's waist, and she reciprocated the embrace, pulling herself closer to him. Just as their lips were about to meet, a pair of familiar faces burst into the room.

_Doesn't anyone ever knock around here?_ Sweets thought to himself as he looked over to see who was interrupting their session.

Skipping the greeting, Dr. Brennan said, "The person in the other car wasn't Pelant."

"What?" Daisy and Sweets exclaimed simultaneously.

Dr. Brennan explained, "We checked the DNA and fingerprints, and-"

At that moment, as if on cue, a cell phone began ringing.

"Booth," he answered. His face paled, then he quickly pressed the "speaker phone" button.

An eerie yet familiar voice on the other line challenged, "Did you really think that you'd get rid of me that easily?"


End file.
